The bus bar may be an arrangement of a plurality of elongated electrical conductors laid in parallel to one another, mounted individually or together in additional insulation elements, which may, by way of example only and not limitation, be plastic bodies. Moreover, the bus bar can may be fixedly mounted in a manufacturing facility, for example, on a floor, without the bus bar moving relative to the floor during operation of the bus bar. The individual electrical conductors may be guided in the form of a bar, preferably also along a bar or in the form of a bar guide.
In order to continuously supply electrical energy, for example, to a production robot, a tap-off device may be installed between the bus bar and an electrically operated production robot or other electrically operated device of this type.
The tap-off device may be movable along the bus bar, preferably together with such a robot as mentioned; however, the tap-off device may be maintained in constant electrical contact with the bus bar during such movement. In alternate embodiments, both components, the bus bar, and the tap-off device, can be spatially fixed and non-movable.
The tap-off device thus allows a continuous supply of electrical energy to the robot or to the other electrical devices envisioned, regardless of the point at which the robot is located relative to the bus bar, provided that the tap-off device is in reliable and continuous electrical contact with the bus bar.
Thus, a device may be required which brings the bus bar and the tap-off bar device into contact with each other in a reliable and electrically continuous, conductive manner. The contact device, as described in several embodiments below, serves this purpose.